


Seize The Day

by badly_knitted



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Community: fic_promptly, Destiny, Episode: s01e12 Prophecy Girl, Fate & Destiny, Gen, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 10:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13809039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Slayers are not destined to enjoy long lives; every day could be Buffy’s last.





	Seize The Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mirrored_Illusions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirrored_Illusions/gifts).



> Written for mirrored_illusions’s prompt ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy, every night could be her last, and there is no escape,’ at fic_promptly.
> 
> **Spoilers:** Prophecy Girl. Set early Season Two.

Slayers typically don’t live long; that’s a hard thing for a teenage girl with her whole life ahead of her to come to terms with, but it’s something Buffy’s had to learn to accept. She might never pass her driving test, or go to college, or get married, or have kids, because chances are she’s not even going to reach her twenties. Most slayers don’t. Truth is, at the grand old age of sixteen, she’s already in her slaying prime. It’s weird.

Every night when she goes out on patrol could be her last, every vamp or demon she encounters could be the one that defeats her, all it will take is one tiny mistake, one split second of inattention, and it’ll be sayonara, game over, another slayer bites the dust.

She’s already died once.

She’d tried to run away from her destiny when she heard the prophecy, just wanted to quit, hide, throw in the towel and let someone else face the Master. Why did it always have to be her? It was so unfair, and the thought of never seeing her friends again, her mom, Angel… She’d never been so scared, didn’t want to die, but in the end a sense of duty had prevailed. Sixteen, and duty bound to sacrifice her own life to save people she didn’t know and would never meet. It sucked, but what else could she do? She was the Slayer, the only one, and as long as she lived the next chosen one wouldn’t be called. The whole world would be at the mercy of vampires and demons until she died of old age, and that had been too horrible to contemplate so she’d accepted her fate, died for the greater good… and been revived, because her friends didn’t want her to die any more than she did.

It’s still not over though, dying once doesn’t give her some kind of free pass, she’s still living on borrowed time and one of these days, she’ll run out of luck again. She tries hard not to think about it and to just get on with her job, but it’s always there, at the back of her mind. She’ll hold off her ultimate fate for as long as she can, fight the good fight against the forces of evil, and every time she goes home after slaying she’ll thank her lucky stars that she survived one more day. Every day she gets is a bonus. But each time she’s injured reality creeps in, reminding her that the sands of time are running out for her and every passing day brings her closer to the end. It’s a reminder she can do without.

Long ago, she’d decided on ‘Seize the day’ as her personal motto. It’s a good rule to live by, so she’s made up her mind to live each day as if it’s her last, because one day, she knows it will be.

The End


End file.
